855 

.5 

.W3 

x 


— 


T! 


Political  Questions 


OF    THE    DAY: 


e*^  delivered  at  Broadway  Hall, 


OAKLAND, 


ember    '24th,    1878 


CHARLES    A.  WASHBURN 


THE 


Political  Questions 


OF    THE    DAY: 


delivered  kt  Bi'okdwa 


OAKLAND, 


34th,    1873, 


X* 

CHARLES    A.   WASHBURN.  I 

// 

> 


JMMCROFT 


ADDRESS 


Among  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature  to  which  all  men  are 
subject,  and  which  all  wise  men  deplore,  is  that  of  procrastination. 
The  most  trivial  and  common-place  affairs  are  allowed  to  push 
aside  those  serious  matters  that  should  be  the  rule  of  conduct  and 
guide  of  life.  Of  the  duties  thus  deferred,  is  that  of  attending  to 
public  affairs  and  of  investigating  those  things  which  it  is  every- 
body's business  to  act  upon,  but  which  are  seldom  duly  considered 
and  examined  till  the  time  for  action  is  close  at  hand.  Then  it  is 
when  impartial  investigation  is  impossible,  when  in  the  heat  and  ex- 
citement of  a  political  canvass  the  judgment  is  warped  and  blinded  by 
partisan  prejudice,  that  most  people  give  any  serious  attention  to 
the  affairs  of  State;  and  as  they  are  by  this  time  no  longer  open  to 
argument  or  conviction,  they  follow  their  old-time  leaders  in  their 
efforts  to  glorify  their  party  and  justify  themselves  in  adhering  to 
dead  issues  and  party  distinctions.  The  platoons  and  cohorts  of 
party  very  seldom  change  front  after  the  battle  has  begun,  and  if 
we  look  through  the  political  history  of  our  own  times,  we  may  notice 
that  the  thoughts  of  men  have  crystallized  into  convictions  when 
neither  canvassing  nor  stump-speaking  were  availed  of  to  befog  the 
intellect  or  excite  the  passions.  Revolutions,  though  sudden  in 
appearance,  are  years  in  their  growth.  It  took  not  only  decades 
and  generations,  but  centuries  of  tyranny  over  submission,  of  big- 
otry over  credulity,  of  knowledge  over  ignorance,  of  luxury  in  the 
midst  of  want,  to  so  surcharge  the  French  nation  with  that  com- 
plete sense  of  their  wrongs,  which,  when  it  broke  forth  and  first  felt 
its  own  power,  became  an  engine  of  atrocities,  to  be  guided  at  the 
pleasure  of  a  Couthon,  a  Robespierre,  or  a  Marat.  Men  do  not  be- 
come infuriate  mercilesr  demons,  to  combine  in  large  numbers  and 
indulge  in  brutal  crimes,  until  they  have  first  been  subjected  to  pro- 
longed and  cruel  injustice.  And  when  they  do  break  forth  in  re- 
volt, their  excesses  will  be  in  a  ratio  corresponding  with  the  oppres- 
sions and  wrongs  that  they  have  suffered. 

So  it  was  the  great  change  that  took  place  in  the  public  mind 
during  the  twenty  years  that  preceded  the  great  rebellion,  rather 
than  that  defiance  and  mullification  had  culminated  in  an  attack 
on  the  jlag  at  Fort  Sumter,  that  led  necessarily  to  a  war  of  sec- 


tions.  The  same  spirit  of  defiance  had  been  shown  thirty  years  before. 
But  the  people  had  then  scarcely  begun  to  realize  their  accounta- 
bility for  a  system  which  they  acknowledged  to  be  wrong,  and 
which  they  thought  might  most  profitably  be  let  alone.  Yet  a  rev- 
olution was  all  this  time  in  progress.  The  changed  sentiment  of 
the  country  found  expression  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  ; 
and  when  resistance  was  next  offered,  it  was  found  that  the  day  for 
compromise  had  gone  by ;  the  people  of  the  free  States  were  pre- 
pared to  meet  force  with  force,  and  ready  to  atone  with  their  own 
blood  for  their  indifference  in  the  past. 

The  authors  of  this  revolution  were  not  the  men  who  led  our 
armies  to  battle.  The  real  heroes  who  braved  the  storms  of  oblo- 
quy and  abuse  by  venturing  to  tell  people  of  their  duties  as  wTell  as 
their  interests,  were  the  men  who  deserve  the  most  noble  apotheosis. 
It  is  to  John  Quincy  Adams,  to  Garrison,  to  Seward  and  Theodore 
Parker ;  to  Greeley,  and  Hale,  and  Bailey  and  their  co-laborers, 
rather  than  to  Grant,  or  Sherman,  or  Sheridan,  or  Thomas,  or  Far- 
ragut  that  we  owe  it,  that  there  is  no  longer  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict. These  latter  were  never  moved  by  those  grand  ideas  of 
statesmenship  and  eternal  right  as  were  the  former.  Though  with 
their  own  good  swords  they  cut  the  way  to  victory,  and  peace  with- 
out conflict,  yet  to  a  higher  degree  is  the  nation's  gratitude  due  to 
those  noble  men  who  pioneered  the  revolution  on  the  ground  of 
principle  and  right. 

But  a  panic  is  not  a  revolution.  It  is  but  a  spasmodic  outburst 
that  may  be  for  a  day,  a  month,  or  a  year  ;  and  when  it  subsides, 
people  are  as  indifferent  as  ever  to  the  causes  that  produced  it. 
Under  its  excitement  men  become  unreasoning,  prescriptive,  and 
unjust,  indulging  in  persecutions  which  they  recoil  from  in  their 
cooler  moments.  The  "  know-nothing"  whirlwind  that  swept  over 
the  country  less  than  twenty  years  ago  was  a  panic  and  not  a  revolu- 
tion. It  was  but  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of  the  great  current  of  events, 
and  when  it  subsided  people  became  more  apathetic  than  ever 
respecting  the  causes  that  had  provoked  it.  Ashamed  for  having 
lent  themselves  to  a  cause  so  narrow  and  contracted  in  its  aims 
and  purposes,  they  sought  to  show  their  ap^tacy  to  it  by  indifference 
to  the  one  principle  on  which  it  was  fouudea. 

Now  whether  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution  or  merely  in 
a  panic,  is  to  be  judged  from  the  magnitude  of  the  issues  before  the 
public.  If  for  a  long  time  people  have  been  ground  under  the  iron 
heel  of  monopolies  and  corporations,  from  which  there  is  no  escape 
by  means  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  country,  then  it  is 
time  for  a  revolution  that  shall  overturn  the  Constitution  and  give 
us  a  better  government.  But  if  it  is  but  an  awakening  of  the 
people  to  their  own  shortcomings  in  neglecting  their  own  interests 


—  5  — 

and  choosing  incompetent  and  corrupt  men  to  be  their  law 
makers,  and  which  only  required  a  popular  expression  to 
correct  the  evils,  then  it  is  a  panic  which,  like  the  thunder 
storm,  will  be  of  short  duration  but  yet  shall  purify  the 
political  atmosphere  and  arouse  people  to  the  duty  of  requiring  a 
higher  standard  of  official  morality.  But  whether  it  is  a  panic  or 
a  revolution,  there  is  none  of  that  partisan  blindness  which  during 
the  excitement  of  an  election  prevents  a  fair  discussion  of  the 
situation.  Parties  seem  to  be  assuming  those  new  relations  incident 
to  the  burial  of  old  issues  and  the  consequent  necessity  of  new  ones; 
and  therefore  I  take  the  occasion  to  offer  some  suggestions,  in 
the  hope  that  they  may  be  weighed  and  considered  during  the  lull 
of  party  politics  that  now  obtains.  I  speak  for  no  party,  and  if  my 
ideas  be  crude  and  my  views  impractical  they  commit  no  one  but 
myself. 

In  times  past  a  few  of  us  felt  it  to  be  our  duty  to  advocate  prin- 
ciples and  doctrines  that  were  then  so  unpopular  as  to  be  dangerous 
to  those  who  upheld  them.  Since  then  they  have  become  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  are  now  almost  universally  approved.  'Tis  true 
the  later  lights  of  the  successful  party,  like  Felton,  and  Booth, 
and  Gorham,  and  Swift,  and  Shannon,  and  Bowie,  and  Upson,  and 
Paul  Merrill,  if  they  condescended  to  notice  us,  always  denounced 
us  as  disturbers  and  fanatics;  but  no  sooner  did  the  fires  of  success 
light  up  the  fields  of  carnage  arid  booty  than  we  found  them  in  the 
front,  denouncing  us  neglectful  of  the  "  man  and  brother."  So  I 
expect  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  the  measures  and  policy  I  have 
now  to  suggest,  but  for  which  I  claim  nothing  new,  will  be  as  uni- 
versally accepted  and  to  see  those  who  shall  at  first  deride  and 
oppose  them  afterwards  support  them  so  zealously,  when  they  see 
them  becoming  popular,that  they  will  denounce  me  for  lukewarmness. 
It  matters  little  that  a  measure  when  first  broached  is  ill  received. 
Innovation  is  ways  offensive  to  habit  arid  self-conceit.  Men 
take  it  as  an  insult  if  they  are  told  that  what  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  consider  as  the  perfection  of  wisdom  is  not  really 
so,  and  that  they  have  been  blindly  and  stupidly  carrying  burdens 
from  which  one  good  vigorous  thought  would  relieve  them.  They 
hate  to  acknowledge  their  folly  by  giving  the  vigorous  thought 
and  so  plod  on  in  the  old  way. 

The  late  Horace  Greeley  adopted  as  a  principle  in  the  conduct 
of  his  newspaper,  that  he  would  tell  people  not  what  they  wished 
to  hear,  but  what  they  ought  to  know.  By  adherence  to  this  policy 
he  placed  the  Tribune  on  a  higher  plane  than  that  of  its  cotem- 
poraries,  and  made  it,  so  long  as  the  rule  was  observed,  the  most 
potent  journal  in  the  country.  Yet  with  this  encouraging  ex- 
ample, how  few  do  we  find  who  can  rise  above  the  tricks  of  the 


—  6  — ' 

demagogue,  and  tell  just  what  they  believe.  How  seldom  do  we 
find  an  editor  in  this  respect  like  Greeley,  and  among  public 
speakers  do  we  ever  find  one  who  does  not  try  to  flatter  his 
audience  ?  .who  is  willing  to  hazard  his  popularity  by  boldly  ad- 
vancing truths  that  he  knows  will  provoke  hisses  instead  of  applause, 
and  send  him  to  Coventry  sooner  than  to  Congress  ?  Occasionally, 
one  who  has  no  popularity  to  lose,  and  can,  therefore,  never  be  a 
candidate  for  the  popular  suffrages,  may  venture  to  tell  people 
what  they  ought  to  know,  being  utterly  indifferent,  so  far  as  he 
himself  is  concerned,  whether  they  like  it  or  not.  Such  a  man  do 
I  profess  myself,  and  to  convince  you  that  I  am  in  earnest,  I  expect 
to  speak  to  you  in  a  manner  that  will  offend  everybody  who  honors 
me  with  his  attention.  At  the  same  time,  I  expect  to  say  some- 
thing that  will  please  everybody,  for  men  are  prone  to  delight  in 
seeing  the  follies  and  errors  of  others  exposed,  though  they  take  it 
in  high  dudgeon  when  their  own  shortcomings  are  held  up  to  ridi- 
cule and  censure.  Hence,  as  I  do  not  expect  that  very  many  will 
agree  with  me  on  every  point,  I  hope  to  speak  plainly  enough,  and 
set  forth  my  ideas  clearly  enough  to  offend  all  the  rest. 

And  now,  to  come  at  once  to  the  practical  questions  of  the  day, 
what  are  the  issues  now  before  the  people  of  California,  or  rather 
those  that  during  the  recent  political  campaign  received  most  of 
their  attention  ?  What  measures  were  they  discussing  at  their 
firesides,  in  the  public  mart,  on  the  streets,  in  the  counting-house, 
the  tavern,  and  the  corner  grocery  ?  Not  tariffs  nor  free  trade, 
not  questions  of  labor  and  its  reward,  of  European  immigration, 
of  ho  ne  iranufactures,  or  of  becoming  one  of  the  United  States, 
by  adopting  the  national  currency.  Nothing  was  said  during  that 
war  of  gladiators  of  reducing  the  hours  of  a  legal  day's  labor ; 
nothing  was  avowed  publicly  and  above-board  of  guarding  the 
avenues  of  learning  against  the  efforts  of  bigots  and  sectarians  ; 
nothing  of  educat"  ig  the  masses  to  self-reliance  and  independence, 
that  they  might  guard  tbeirselves  against  the  devices  of  the  devil, 
now  in  the  form  of  a  ranting  leveler  and  now  in  the  garb  of  a 
Jesuit  priest.  On  all  these  matters  scarce  a  word  was  said,  but 
the  sole  question  over  which  the  dominant  party  contended  was 
this :  shall  California  be  next  represented  in  the  United  States 
Senate  by  George  C.  Gorham  or' Newton  Booth?  This  question 
was  agitated  and  discussed  by  our  newspapers  and  public  speakers 
almost  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other,  as  if  they  wished  to  belittle 
us  as  a  State  and  dwarf  us  «is  a  people,  by  a  tacit  admission  that 
there  was  no  one  else  in  the  State  competent  to  the  position  of 
Senator,  and  that,  too,  when  we  had,  standing  out  resplendent  with 
their  acquired  laurels,  such  intellectual  giants  as  Cole  and  Fay — 
such  prodigies  of  purity  and  honesty  as  Casserly  and  Pixley. 


The  stalking  horse  behind  which  the  contestants  discharged 
their  blunderbusses,  was  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  ;  and  though 
no  one  pretended  to  tell  how  the  people  were  to  be  relieved  from 
the  insolence  and  overcharging  of  the  great  monopoly  by  the  elec- 
tion of  this  man  or  the  defeat  of  that,  they  had  the  satisfaction  of 
making  ugly  faces  at  the  Company,  and  of  seeing  it  obliged  to  sus- 
pend the  extension  of  its  roads  into  the  more  remote  parts  of  the 
State.  They  had  the  higher  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  construction 
of  other  roads  to  the  Pacific,  also  suspended,  and  their  completion 
postponed  for  a  long  time  ;  so  that  for  years  to  come,  the  Central 
Pacific  will  have  a  complete  monopoly  of  the  overland  business. 
The  catastrophe  which  the  destructives  have  precipitated,  will  put 
millions  of  dollars  into  the  pockets  of  Stanford  and  his  fellow  de- 
spoilers  ;  and  for  indefinite  years  must  the  people  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  submit  to  the  tyranny  and  exactions  of  a  grasping,  defiant 
monopoly. 

But  all  through  this  campaign,  the  vital  practical  living  issues 
that  directly  and  immediately  touch  the  interests  of  the  people, 
were  utterly  ignored.  The  result  was  an  expression  of  popular 
hostility  to  that  chief  of  abominations,  the  railroad  monopoly, 
which  holds  the  material  interests  of  the  State  in  its  iron  folds ; 
that  huge  constrictor  that  has  so  effectually  crushed  out  competi- 
tion, that  trade,  and  commerce,  and  agriculture  are  at  the  mercy 
of  a  merciless  despotism.  But  this  expression  of  the  public  voice 
was,  I  fear,  only  a  voice  ;  vox  et  prceterea  nihil.  Among  all  the 
speeches  and  editorials  of  the  campaign  denouncing  the  railroad 
monopoly,  no  remedy  was  proposed  ;  no  means  suggested  to  re- 
press its  arrogance,  or  counteract  its  power  for  evil.  No  one  who 
exposed  or  railed  at  its  abuses  rose  to  the  dignity  of  statesman- 
ship so  far  as  to  suggest  any  plan  of  relief.  We  did  not  lack  for 
scolds  to  denounce  and  threaten.  Destructives  and  levelers  were 
to  be  heard  at  every  gathering.  But  the  voice  of  a  statesman — of 
a  constructive  political  leader  and  economist,  who  could  propose 
anything  to  supplant  this  grinding  monopoly,  and  give  us  something 
better — something  that  should  aid  the  farmer  and  mechanic — some- 
thing that  should  bring  us  capital,  and  create'  factories,  thus  find- 
ing employment  for  all  who  are  willing  to  labor  —  that  voice  was 
never  heard.  Of  cheap  demagogues  who  could  pull  down — who 
could  decry  existing  evils — the  world  has  never  known  a  lack — but 
of  those  who  could  suggest  measures  of  improvement,  and,  as  re- 
medies to  admitted  abuses  have  advocated  innovations  and  changes 
of  a  constructive  and  creative  character,  there  -has  always  been  a 
marvelous  scarcity.  ^And  when  we  have  had  one  with  the  energy 
and  courage  to  undertake  great  enterprises,  and  successfully  put 
them  into  execution,  we  have  had  whole  communities  to  say  that 


such  things  ought  to  be  done.  We  have  numberless  writers  and 
editors  to  tell  us  of  the  benefits  to  be  received  by  the  public,  if 
other  people  will  only  undertake  and  carry  through  such  schemes 
as  the  introduction  of  pure  water,  the  construction  of  gas  works, 
manufactories,  and  railroads.  Appeals  to  men  of  wealth  and  en- 
terprise are  incessant  for  thejn  to  come  forward  and  carry  out 
these  projects,  and  earn  the  gratitude  of  the  people,  who,  in  turn, 
will  build  them  monuments  of  marble  or  of  bronze.  But  the  monu- 
ments to  those  who  do  undertake  these  public  works,  if  they  suc- 
ceed, and  do  not  beggar  themselves,  are  not  generally  of  marble, 
but  they  are  more  often  effigies  of  themselves,  to  be  burnt  in  the 
public  streets,  as  if  they  were  public  enemies. 

A  dozen  years  ago,  the  great  necessity  of  California  was  felt  to 
be  a  Pacific  railroad.  Our  speakers  and  politicians  waxed  elo- 
quent on  this  subject,  and  our  newspapers  were  teeming  with 
articles,  showing  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  aid  and  of 
capitalists  to  undertake  that  great  work. 

At  last  a  few  men  of  limited  means,  but  of  patriotic  impulses, 
who,  long  before  the  war,  had  been  pronounced  in  their  opposition 
to  the  extension  of  slavery,  had  the  sagacity  to  see  that  a  Pacific 
railroad  was  a  national  necessity,  that  as  a  union  measure  it  ought 
to  receive  the  support  of  the  national  government,  and  casting  their 
bread  upon  the  waters,  they  embarked  all  they  had  in  the  perilous 
venture :  their  name  as  responsible,  fair-dealing  men ;  their  for- 
tunes, which,  though  not  large,  had  been  acquired  by  years  of  toil 
and  economy ;  their  assured  competency,  for  the  risk  of  failure, 
bankruptcy,  and  an  old  age  of  penury.  But  they  ventured  all ; 
and  when  abroad  I  learned  of  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  I  con- 
fess I  rejoiced  to  know  that  it  was  in  the  hands  of  union  men,  men 
with  whom  I  had  been  in  sympathy,  during  those  angry  days  pre- 
ceding the  rebellion  ;  men  who  had  been  known  as  earnest,  self- 
sacrificing  Republicans  ;  good  citizens,  commanding  the  respect  of 
all  as  men  of  integrity  and  public  spirit.  And  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia recognized  the  service  that  those  men  had  rendered  to  the 
State  and  nation,  and  rejoiced  at  their  success  ;  and  had  they  been 
satisfied,  not  with  moderate,  but  with  enormous  fortunes,  they  would 
have  been  regarded  to  this  day  as  great  public  benefactors,  entitled 
to  all  the  civic  honors  that  a  generous  people  could  bestow. 

But  who  and  what  are  those  men  now  ?  Their  career  illustrates 
as  well  as  any  example  since  Elisha  foretold  to  Hazael,  the  change 
that  should  come  over  him  on  his  accession  to  power,  the  wisdom  of 
the  prayer  of  Agur,  "  Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches,  feed  me 
with  food  convenient  for  me  ;  lest  I  be  full  and  deny  thee,  and 
say  who  is  the  Lord  ?  or  lest  I  be  poor,  and  steal,  and  take  the 
name  of  my  God  in  vain." 

i* 


These  men  who  as  merchants  or  business  men  stood  above  re- 
proach, whose  word  was  as  good  as  their  bond,  who  v.ouldbe 
ashamed  to  take  an  unfair  advantage  in  business,  what  would  they 
not  do  now,  as  monopolists  and  millionaires  to  carry  a  point !  There 
is  hardly  a  meanness  to  which  they  will  not  stoop,  or  an  advantage 
they  will  not  take.  As  men  of  business,  whose  standing  depended 
on  their  general  character,  they  would  scorn  to  meddle  in  the  low 
tricks  of  politics.  But  as  railroad  kings  they  thrust  their  polluting 
hands  into  every  ward  caucus.  They  dictate  to  their  followers  their 
boarding-houses  arid  washwomen.  They  discriminate  in  their 
charges  to  the  minutest  details,  giving  special  rates  to  their  friends, 
or  rather  subjects,  general  rates  to  the  public,  and  excessive  rates 
to  their  enemies  or  competitors.  They  wish  it  to  be  understood  that 
it  is  for  every  man's  interest  to  bow  down  and  worship  them,  and 
to  make  that  plain,  they  plant  the  iron  heel  on  these  who  refuse  to 
do  so.  Leland  Stanford,  the  oil  merchant,  would  never  have  set  up 
a  rival  candle  shop  alongside  of  a  small  dealer  on  another  square 
to  break  him  down,  nor  would  Huntington,  much  less  Hopkins,  have 
kept  an  hour  in  his  employ  an  expressman  who  had  purposely  run 
down  and  smashed  up  the  wagon  of  a  rival  hardware  dealer. 
There  is  not  a  hoodlum  that  cries  newspapers  on  the  streets,  nor  a 
blear-eyed  cripple  who  sells  songs  and  cheap  literature  at  the  cross- 
ings, who  would  not  be  ashamed  to  sell  you  yesterday's  paper  for 
that  just  issued,  or  to  take  your  money  on  the  last  day  of  Decem- 
ber for  an  almanac  of  the  expiring  year,  when  you  had  paid  it  for 
the  one  which  was  incoming.  But  the  railroad  kings,  now  they  are  so 
rich  and  powerful,  that  they  feel  they  are  above  the  law  and  can 
with  impunity  defy  and  insult  whom  they  please, do  not  think  it 
out  of  the  way  to  run  an  opposition  steamer  in  order  to  break  down 
any  little  boat  that  should  try  to  accommodate  people  they  had  be- 
fore neglected  ;  or  to  endanger  the  lives  of  scores  of  people  by  run- 
ning down  the  vessel  that  had  the  temerity  to  carry  them  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  great  monoply.  They  have  no  shame  in  taking  your 
money  or  my  money  for  a  commutation  ticket  from  Oakland  to 
San  Francisco  within  three  days  of  the  end  of  the  month,  arid  put- 
ting on  you  a  ticket  good  only  for  two  or  three  trips,  when  you 
think,  and  they  know  you  think,  you  are  commuting  for  a  month. 
They  can  sell  you  yesterday's  daily,  or  last  year's  almanac,  and 
when  you  complain  to  their  underlings  the  satisfaction  you  get  will 
be  a  brief  notice  that  you  can  go  to  the  devil. 

Does  any  one  excuse  such  acts  ?  Not  one ;  and  we  shall  be  told 
that  the  chief  men  of  a  vast  corporation  cannot  know  of  the  inso- 
lence and  impertinence  of  their  underlings  and  upstarts.  But  if 
there  is  any  truth  in  maxims  or  proverbs,  this  is  true  :  "  Like  mas- 
ter, like  man."  The  employes  of  the  railroad  company  know  full 


—  10  — 

well  what  general  deportment  will  most  please  their  employers. 
For  years  I  had  the  fortune,  good  or  bad,  to  reside  in  a  country 
where  the  government  was  an  absolute  despotism.  The  head  of 
that  government  was  a  monster  without  parallel  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  A  tyrant  and  an  arrant  coward,  who  saw  an  enemy  in 
every  bush,  and  quivered  and  shook  at  every  sound,  his  only  de- 
light was  in  the  misery  of  those  around  him.  His  diversion  was 
the  infliction  of  torture,  and  he  spared  neither  age  nor  sex.  Nei- 
ther fidelity  nor  kinship  came  between  him  and  his  victims.  His 
best  officers  were  arrested,  flogged,  and  shot,  without  knowing  their 
offense.  His  brothers  and  sisters  were  tortured  days,  weeks,  and 
months,  being  kept  alive  solely  that  their  unnatural  brother  might 
enjoy  the  sight  of  their  agony.  His  own  mother  was  treated  with 
the  same  unnatural  brutality,  and  when  rescued  from  the  grasp  of 
her  tiger  cub,  her  back  was  but  one  mass  of  putrid  sores,  in  which 
the  maggots  held  carnival.  This  man,  or  rather  monster,  did  not 
apply  the  lash  with  his  own  hand  to  the  backs  of  his  brothers,  sis- 
ters or  mother,  nor  did  he  tie  the  thongs  that  were  to  tear  his  vic- 
tim's limbs  from  their  sockets.  But  his  underlings  knew  well  his 
fierce  and  cruel  character,  and  that  any  leniency  shown  to  prison- 
ers would  subject  them  to  equal  tortures,  while  any  excesses  would 
be  forgiven,  or  rather  would  procure  promotion  and  favor.  Hence 
they  showed  alacrity  in  torture,  and  seemed  to  enjoy  its  infliction. 
The  same  spirit  of  flunkeyism  may  be  seen  everywhere.  The  arro- 
gant, ill-natured,  tyrannical  master  is  sure  to  be  waited  on  by  one 
who  takes  pride  in  imitating  his  rudeness  and  brutality.  If  the 
subordinates  of  the  railroad  are  rude  and  ^uncivil  to  the  public,  they 
are  GO  in  imitation  of  their  chiefs.  They  have  learned  that  com- 
plaints for  incivility  are  either  not  heeded  or  are  passed  to  their 
credit  au  showing  zeal  for  their  masters'  interests. 

That  such  men,  whose  wealth  is  told  by  millions,  should  stoop  to 
such  contemptible  tricks  merely  for  the  slight  pecuniary  gain  to 
themselves,  is  incredible.  It  is  the  lust  of  power  that  governs 
them  in  descending  to  such  meanness  ;  they  want  to  make  people 
feel  how  broad  is  the  scope  of  their  influence,  and  that  there  is  no 
one  so  humble  but  he  may  be  reached  by  the  wand  of  their  mo- 
nopoly and  be  made  to  wither  and  wilt  as  did  the  tree  which  Christ 
cursed.  They  wish  all  to  understand  that  they  are  responsible  to 
neither  God  nor  man ;  that  they  are  to  say  who  shall  be  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress,  State  legislators  and  judges. 

That  it  is  the  lust  of  power  which  now  governs  them,  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  their  wealth  of  many  millions  to  each  is -far  more 
than  they  can  care  for,  either  for  comfort  and  luxury  to  themselves, 
or  for  a  heritage  to  their  children.  The  almost  universal  exper- 
ience of  Republican  institutions  in  America  is,  that  colossal  fortunes 


—  11  — 

are  dissipated  within  one  or  two  generations ;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  either  of  these  railroad  magnates  will  be  so  inconsist- 
ant  as  to  be  a  rival  of  Peabody  or  Girard,  and  to  leave  the 'mil- 
lions, wrung  to  a  large  extent,  at  the  price  of  the  curses  and  cries 
of  the  multitude,  to  compound  with  the  future  for  the  oppressions 
of  the  present,  by  founding  some  scientific,  charitable,  or  educa- 
tional institution.  No  ;  philanthropy  does  not  rob  Peter  to  pay 
Paul,  nor  wrong  the  neighbor  to  be  generous  to  the  stranger.  It 
does  not  refuse  justice  to  bestow  bounty. 

I  do  not  say  that  in  the  use  they  make  of  their  power  they  are 
not  like  other  men.  Who  can  say  that  he,  if  suddenly  lifted  to 
great  wealth  and  power,  would  not  abuse  them  to  tyrannize  over  his 
fellow-men  ?  If  such  known  philanthropists  as  Pickering  or  Fitch, 
and  Fay  and  Cohen,  and  Reese  and  Haggin — men  who  are  known 
to  wander  about  nights  to  find  avenues  for  their  charities  —  were 
told  that  within  a  month  a  controlling  interest  in  the  C.  P.  R.  R. 
would  be  theirs,  and  that  they  would  be  as  extortionate,  as  avaricious, 
unjust  and  insolent  as  Stanford,  and  Huntirigton,  and  Hopkins, 
would  not  each  exclaim :  "  But  what ;  is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he 
should  do  this  thing !"  And  yet  who  does  not  know  that  if  such  a 
change  were  made,  it  would  not  be  two  months  before  the  whole 
people  would  cry  out  for  the  return  of  King  Log,  in  the  place  of 
King  Serpent. 

The  truth  is,  as  shown  by  all  history,  irresponsible  power  is  to  be 
entrusted  to  no  man  and  to  no  set  of  men.  In  the  hands  of  the 
best  of  men,  even,  it  is  always  abused  ;  and  if  experience  teaches 
anything,  it  is  that  all  authority  should  be  subject  to  and  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  strong  arm  of  the  people.  The  divine  right 
of  kings  is  an  exploded  doctrine,  and  is  not  to  be  succeeded  by  the 
divine  right  of  monopolies.  The  privileges  of  feudalism  and  the 
old  noblesse,  are  not  to  be  relegated  to  the  princes  of  shoddy  or  the 
manipulators  of  swindling  raids  on  the  Government. 

It  is  often  said  by  superficial  thinkers,  that  every  people  have  as 
good  a  government  as  they  deserve  :  that  as  the  power  lies  with  them 
it  is  their  fault  if  they  submit  to  oppression.  Though  this  is  not  uni- 
versally true,  it  is  true  of  the  citizens  of  a  republic.  If  they  have 
a  bad  government  and  permit  peculation,  and  fraud,  and  official  in- 
competency,  when  they  and  they  alone  have  the  power  to  correct 
all  abuses,  then  they  deserve  to  suffer,  and  we  should  rejoice  in 
their  agony  of  oppression,  for  that  and  that  alone  will  arouse  them 
to  their  duties  as  members  of  the  body  politic.  Society,  or  rather  the 
great  public,  in  every  country  where  despotism  is  not  absolute,  is 
like  a  galvanic  battery.  This  instrument  may  be  charged  with 
electricity  to  a  small  extent,  and  the  subtle  fluid  may  be  allowed  to 
accumulate  unnoticed  until  it  can  hold  no  more.  It  has  no  outlet 


—  12  — 

or  conductor,  and  when  the  point  of  its  utmost  capacity  is  reached, 
it  leaps  forth  like  a  thunder  clap,  shivering  all  before  it.  So  one 
abuse  may  be  perpetrated  against  the  people,  and  then  another  and 
another.  All  see  and  realize  it  and  seem  to  acquiesce  in  it,  yet  all 
the  time  the  body  politic  is  getting  overcharged  with  resentment,  or, 
if  I  may  so  call  it,  the  electricity  of  indignation.  The  perpetrators, 
grown  bold  at  the  public  indifference,  give  another  turn  to  the  crank, 
and  then  they  add  another,  till,  just  as  they  come  to  believe  that 
the  people  are  mere  passive  machines,  the  accumulated  wrath  leaps 
out  with  a  lightning  flash,  the  structures  of  fraud  and  oppression 
are  scattered  in  fragments,  to  be  succeeded  by  a  clear  sky,  a 
healthier  atmosphere. 

In  tkis  country  the  cumulative  wrongs  take  the  form  of  gigan- 
tic monopolies,  and  are  of  a  most  dangerous  and  fatal  character. 
Those  of  a  more  general  character  are  the  railroad,  the  telegraph 
and  the  combinations  of  capitalists  to  keep  money  out  of  the  coun- 
try in  order  that  interest  may  be  kept  at  a  high  rate. 

Of  all  the  inventions  and  enterprises  that  in  these  later  days  en- 
ter into  the  the  comforts  and  necessities  of  the  entire  community, 
the  telegraph  and  the  railroad  alone  possess  the  conditions  essential 
to  a  strict  monopoly.  For  their  better  working  and  greater  useful- 
ness they  should  be  all  under  one  management,  and  no  competition 
should  be  possible.  While  this  may  not  be  practicable  at  present, 
or  to  a  limited  extent  only,  so  far  as  a  railroads  are  concerned,  yet 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  telegraph  should  not  be  so  managed. 

Telegraph  lines,  to  be  self-supporting,  must  be  many  thousand 
miles  in  length,  and  should  be  able  to  gather  the  news  and  bear  the 
messages  from  thousands  of  distant  points.  The  lines  of  one 
company  can  do  all  the  business  on  any  and  all  routes  at  cheaper 
rates  than  it  can  be  done  by  two  or  more.  The  expenses  of  build- 
and  operating  more  than  one,  will  necessarily  be  greater  than 
those  of  a  single  line  that  should  do  all  the  business.  For  this  in- 
creased expense,  of  course,  the  public  must  pay ;  and  hence  it  is  as 
clear  as  the  demonstration  of  a  problem  in  Euclid,  that  in  the  tel- 
egraphing of  the  country  there  should  be  no  competition.  It  should 
be  done  in  the  cheapest  manner  possible,  and  at  rates  so  low  as  to 
make  it  a  self-sustaining  institution  of  the  government ;  no  more, 
no  less.  It  should  be  like  the  Post  Office,  a  department  run  for 
the  public  good,  for  which  each  man  who  used  it  should  pay  just  the 
cost  of  sending  and  delivering  his  message. 

But  railroads  over  the  same  routes  can  bear  competition  still  less 
than  telegraphs.  In  fact  in  most  cases  competition  is  practically 
impossible.  On  the  through  lines  between  important  points  compe- 
tition may  and  does  exist,  but  that  is  because  the  roads  pass  through 
different  sections  of  country  and  accomodate  a  different  way-travel 


—  13  — 

on  which  there  is  no  competition.  But  over  the  same  routes  parallel 
lines  would  he  simply  ruinous,  and  hence  they  do  not  exist.  In  no  oth- 
er branch  of  business  does  the  same  opportunity  for  monopoly  exist 
as  in  these  two.  It  is  true,  that  a  city  can  tolerate  a  gas  monopoly 
or  a  water  monopoly  if  it  chooses,  but  there  is  nothing  in  nature  to 
prevent  other  companies  from  making  and  selling  gas  in  opposition, 
though  the  expenses  would  thereby  be  increased  and  the  aggregate 
cost  of  gas  to  the  community  would  be  more.  Hence  it  would  be 
better,  except  for  the  scarcity  of  honest  men  in  municipal  coun- 
cils, for  the  cities  to  own  their  own  gas  and  water  works. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  other  monopolies,  especially 
about  the  monopoly  given  to  manufacturers,  by  reason  of  a  pro- 
tective tariff.  But  for  this  complaint  there  is  absolutely  no  founda- 
tion in  reason.  What  though  the  manufacturers  of  cutlery,  or  cut 
glass,  of  wooden  ware,  or  of  iron  houses,  make  their  ten,  twenty,  or 
thirty  per  cent,  per  annum  on  their  capital,  while  the  man  who 
owns  houes  and  lets  them,  or  owns  money  and  loans  it,  gets  but 
half  that  interest.  Why  does  not  this  latter  sell  his  houses,  or  call 
in  his  loans,  and  go  into  one  of  these  favored  manufacturing 
enterprises  that  pay  such  enormous  profits  ?  Why  does  he  not 
get  the  advantage  of  this  protective  tariff  by  going  into  manu- 
facturing business,  thereby  doubling  his  profits  at  the  same  time 
that  he  gives  employment  to  the  men  around  him  ?  A  year  or 
two  since,  and  that  poor  oppressed  friend  of  the  people,  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  complained  that,  owing  to  the  duty  on  iron  and  coal, 
the  miners  and  manufacturers  of  Fennsyivania  were  getting  a  larger 
interest  on  their  capital  than  he  was,  and  he  wanted  the  tariff 
amended  so  that  he  could  import  iron  and  coal  free  of  duty.  But 
the  great  advocate  of  protection,  and  chosen  leader  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  Horace  Greeley,  promptly  met  him  with  the  charge 
that  he  was  a  fraud  and  an  impostor.  Why,  said  he,  if  manu- 
facturing is  so  profitable  as  you  pretend,  why  do  you  not  take  a 
few  of  those  ill-gotten  millions,  with  which  you  are  now  trying  to 
embarrass  the  government  and  all  legitimate  enterprises  by  your  illicit 
speculations  in  Wall  street,  and  open  some  iron  and  coal  mines  of 
your  own  ?  Why  do  you  not  build  some  furnaces,  foundries,  and 
machine-shops,  and  so  share  in  these  enormous  profits  of  the 
manufacturers  ?  The  field  is  open,  and  wherever  the  profits  are 
unusually  large,  let  capital  and  enterprise  enter  and  take  posses- 
sion. But  Vanderbilt  did  not  venture  his  money  in  any  such  un- 
dertaking, for  though  he  had  not  too  much  principle  to  act  the 
demagogue,  he  had  too  much  sense  not  to  know  that  in  a  country 
of  free  and  intelligent  people,  where  everybody  is  striving  to  get 
into  the  best  paying  business,  no  field  yielding  extra  profits  is  ever 
left  long  unoccupied.  My  friend,  Michael  Reese,  complains  that  he 


—  14  — 

gets  only  eighteen  per  cent,  a  year  on  his  loaned  millions,  while 
my  other  friend,  Donald  McLellan,  gets  twenty-five  per  cent,  in 
his  business  of  manufacturing  blankets ;  whereas,  if  the  duties  on 
woollen  goods  were  taken  off,  poor  Michael  might  get  the  blankets 
that  he  sleeps  under  for  one  or  two  dollars  a  pair  less,  and  Donald, 
after  borrowing  all  the  money  he  could  from  Michael,  in  order  to 
keep  on  in  business  and  keep  his  men  employed,  rather  than  turn 
them  into  the  streets  to  starve,  or  to  still  further  glut  the  labor 
market,  he  could  close  up  his  business,  and  deed  his  factory  to  the 
free  trade  philanthropist,  to  be  used  as  a  rookery.  But,  as  the 
duties  are  not  likely  to  be  taken  off,  why  does  not  Michael  engage 
in  one  of  those  manufacturing  monopolies  ?  Does  he  think  the  in- 
vestment would  pay  him  so  large  an  interest,  that  his  conscience 
would  not  permit  him  to  take  it  ?  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  ;  but 
a  more  likely  one  is,  that  he  knows  manufacturing  in  California, 
even  with  all  the  protection  afforded  by  the  present  tariff,  does  not, 
as  a  general  thing,  pay  so  high  an  interest  as  may  be  realized  in 
other  ways.  Hence,  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  monopolies  in 
this  country  arc  limited  to  matters  in  which,  for  reasons  of  a 
physical  character,  there  can  be  no  competition  ;  and  of  these,  the 
two  of  most  importance  are  the  railroad  and  the  telegraph. 

And  of  these  two,  the  telegraph,  as  now  managed,  is  the  greater 
abomination,  and  in  all  its  aspects  and  features  answers  more  nearly 
the  description  of  an  odious  monopoly — the'most  odious  and  danger- 
ous ever  known  in  the  United  States.  Its  network  is  spread  all 
over  the  country.  Its  power  as  a  political  engine  exceeds  that  of 
the  Federal  Government,  with  its  standing  army  of  office-holders. 
It  is  entirely  antagonistic  to  the  genius  and  spirit  of  Republican 
institutions  ;  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  most  unscrupulous 
stock-gamblers  in  the  country.  A  majority  of  the  stock  is  owned 
by  none  other  than  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  the  richest  as  well  as 
the  meanest  man  in  the  United  States.  None  but  a  very  rich  man, 
one  having  millions,  is  capable  of  the  meanest  acts.  Vanderbilt 
with  his  hundred  millions  dares  and  does  do  things  that  would 
cause  another  man,  having  only  his  hundreds  of  thousands,  to  be 
scorned  and  shunned,  and  driven  from  all  business  and  social 
circles.  And  this  is  the  man  wrho  controls  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph,  and  not  only  that,  but  he  has  a  preponderating  influence 
on  railroad  lines  that  represent  on  the  stock  board  $215,000,000. 

With  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  commerce,  his  hand  is  on  the 
throat  of  general  intelligence,  which  is  doled  out  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States  as  suits  his  pleasure  or  interest.  The  policy  of 
this  Company,  of  which  he  is  the  controlling  spirit,  is  not  only  to 
make  enormous  dividends  to  its  managers,  but  to  furnish  people 
with  the  knowledge  on  which  they  shall  found  their  opinions. 


—  15  — 

In  the  dark  ages  of  priestcraft  and  superstition,  when  the  cowl 
was  paramount  to  the  crown,  and  learning  was  the  monopoly  of  the 
cloister,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  priests  to  hold  the  keys  of  knowl- 
edge in  their  own  hands ;  and,  so  long  as  they  could  do  this,  they 
governed  the  world.  They  knew  that  knowledge  was  power,  and 
the  most  dangerous  order  to  human  freedom  and  enlightenment 
which  the  world  has  ever  known  has  constantly  labored  to  prevent 
people  from  receiving  any  knowledge  except  such  as  was  filtered 
through  the  sieves  of  Jesuitical  bigotry,  and  was  stamped  and  ap- 
proved by  the  maw-worms  of  superstition.  The  disciples  of  Loyola 
are  more  busy  and  hopeful  to-day  than  at  any  time  since  the  princi- 
pal sovereigns  of  Catholic  Europe  were  compelled  in  self-protection 
to  banish  them,  as  insufferable  pests,  from  their  dominions.  Their 
object  still  is  to  hold  the  keys  of  knowledge.  The  free  non-secta- 
rian school  is  their  abomination,  and  they  are  subordinating  all 
other  questions  to  this  one  of  the  control  of  the  school  money.  They 
would  have  the  youth  reared  in  the  belief  that  their  teachings  are 
true  and  infallible,  well  knowing  that  when  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple shall  accept  them  as  their  sole  guides  in  morals  and  religion,  the 
church  will  be  as  absolute  in  authority  as  in  the  good  old  days  when 
Galileo  was  imprisoned  and  Jews  and  heretics  were  roasted  by 
scores  at  every  auto-da-fe  for  the  amusement  and  spiritual  edifica- 
tion of  the  saints.  These  were  the  Jesuits  of  Loyola.  Hard,  big- 
oted, and  logical,  they  sought  power  by  holding  the  gates  of  learn- 
ing. But  we  have  now  another  order  of  Jesuits,  harder  and  more 
selfish  than  the  others,  but. neither  as  honest  nor  as  logical.  They 
are  the  political,  financial  Jesuits,  who  seek  to  control  the  avenues 
of  knowledge  to  the  people,  whom  they  tax  enormously  for  the  in- 
formation which  they  allow  them  to  receive,  at  the  same  time  they 
try  to  wield  the  power  that  elects  Presidents  and  Senators,  and 
blasts  reputations,  and  makes  heroes  of  nonentities  in  a  manner 
never  thought  of  by  Pope  or  Emperor. 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  now  has  its  lines  extended  to  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  and  all  the  information  it  gives  to  the 
people  must  pass  through  the  hands  of  agents,  who  are  responsible 
only  to  the  Company.  Its  charges  are  so  excessive  as  to  pay 
large  dividends  on  stock  so  watered  that  its  nommal  value  is  five 
times  the  actual  cost.  On  an  investment  of  eight  millions,  and 
that  mostly  the  earnings 'of  the  lines,  the  Company  extort  from  the 
public  dividends  on  forty  millions,  reserving  all  the  while  a  fund 
sufficient  to  break  down  opposition  throughout  the  less  populous 
parts  of  the  country.  Between  such  large  cities  as  Boston,  New- 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  where  the  business  is  so  vasfr 
they  cannot  afford  a  destructive  opposition,  the  rates  are  reasonably 
low.  But  wherever  there  is  no  competition,  the  charges  are  so 


-16- 

excessive  that  the  telegraph  is  scarcely  available  for  any  but  the 
rich. 

It  is  but  about  two  years  ago  that  a  ten- word  telegram  from 
San  Francisco  to  New  York  was  $5.  It  would  probably  have 
been  at  that  figure  still,  but  for  the  antagonism  of  the  other  great 
monopoly,  the  Central  Pacific  R.  R.  Company.  No  ordinary  company 
could  have  established  and  maintained  opposition  lines,  but  the 
Union  Pacific  and  the  Central  Pacific  needed  one  for  their  own 
accommodation  ;  it  was  useless  for  the  Western  Union  to  attempt 
to  break  them  down  by  running  opposition  at  losing  rates.  So  they 
compromised  by  cutting  down  prices  to  half  what  it  was,  and  five 
times  what  it  ought  to  be.  For  this  favor,  this  fraction  of  a  just 
reform,  the  people  of  California  and  the  whole  Pacific  Coast  are 
indebted,  not  to  the  independent  press  that  claims  to  be  the  special 
foe  of  all  monopolies,  but  to  the  Central  Pacific  R.  R.  Company. 

As  an  adjunct  of  the  Western  Union  Company,  is  another  mon- 
opoly, so  closely  connected  with  it  as  to  be  almost,  if  not  altogether, 
a  part  of  it.  This  is  the  Associated  Press  Company.  This  Com- 
pany has  its  agents  in  all  the  principal  cities,  and,  at  less  important 
points,  the  telegraph  operators  act  in  that  capacity.  Thus  united 
this  double  monopoly  has  a  great  advantage  in  the  collection  and 
distribution  of  news  over  anybody  and  everybody  else ;  and  as  the 
Associated  Press  has  special  rates  for  its  transmission,  all  news- 
papers not  belonging  to  it  are  at  such  a  disadvantage,  they  can 
only  keep  the  field  by  superior  ability  and  enterprise.  This  Asso- 
ciation is  a  close  corporation,  to  which  only  three  papers  in  Cali- 
fornia are  admitted.  And  these  three  papers  claim  to  be  the 
champions  of  the  people  against  all  monopolies ;  at  the  same  time, 
they  maintain  that  one  which  is  the  most  dangerous  and  most  de- 
testable of  all. 

In  these  days  of  rapid  transit  and  great  activity,  the  majority  of 
people  read  little  beside  the  first  telegraphic  news,  and  therefore 
they  are  almost  compelled  to  take  those  papers  having  the  fullest 
dispatches.  Under  existing  monopolies  it  is  scarcely  possible  that 
any  papers  can  be  so  well  served  in  that  respect  as  those  belonging 
to  the  combination.  Hence  people  are  forced  to  take  them,  no 
matter  how  much  they  detest  their  principles,  or  dislike  their  pro- 
prietors. Having  the  power  of  coloring  all  facts  of  public  interest, 
and  knowing  that  opinions  take  form  according  to  first  impressions, 
a  monopoly  like  this  may  shape  the  national  parties  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, arid  make  great  men  of  charlatans,  and  rogues  the  popular 
favorites. 

^  And  why  has  this  monstrous  monopoly  been  tolerated  so  long, 
and.  why  has  not  the  press  generally  denounced  and  exposed  it  ? 
The  telegraph  company  have  provided  against  that.  In  its  con- 


—  17  — 

tracts  with  newspapers  it  provides  that  they  shall  receive  dispatches 
only  on  condition  that  nothing  unfriendly  or  adverse  to  the  monop- 
oly shall  be  admitted  into  their  columns.  The  newspapers  must  be 
muz/lcd,  before  they  can  have  the  permission  of  Vanderbilt,.  Orton 
and  Simonton  to  publish  news.  An  independent  press  !  Thralls 
and  hirelings  of  a  Jesuitical  despotism,  rather  let  it  be  called. 

And  now  the  question  arises,  how  is  this  monopoly  to  be  broken 
up  V  The  Western  Union  people  will  tell  us  that  we  have  only  to 
establish  other  lines  alongside  of  theirs,  and  the  thing  is  done.  But 
how  are  you  and  I  that  haven't  any  forty  millions,  or  even  eight 
millions,  to  start  an  opposition,  to  help  ourselves  ?  We  are  power- 
less, and  they  know  it,  and  so  they  insult  us  by  telling  us  to  help 
ourselves,  if  we  can.  In  other  countries,  the  government  has 
stepped  in  and  bought  up  the  private  lines,  and  taken  the  whole 
telegraph  business  into  its  own  hands.  The  result  is,  much  better 
service  at  cheaper  rates,  at  the  same  time  that  the  business  is  self- 
supporting. 

The  objection,  and  the  only  valid  one  in  this  country,  to  having 
the  telegraph  under  the  management  of  the  Government  is,  the 
danger  of  centralization.  It  is  feared  that  with  the  control  of  this 
vast  engine  of  power,  the  Government  might  use  it  for  improper 
purposes ;  that  it  would  largely  increase  the  number  of  Federal 
office-holders,  and  that  an  ambitious  President  might  use  it  to  per-; 
petuate  his  power ;  that  a  third  term,  or  a  life  term,  would  be  easy, 
if  the  avenues  of  knowledge  were  guarded  by  those  already  in 
authority.  There  is  force  in  this  argument.  There  might  be 
danger  to  Republican  institutions,  if  the  telegraph  were  under  the 
control  of  the  Post  Office  Department ;  but  of  course  there  can  be 
none  when  it  is  managed  by  and  for  such  immaculate  patriots  as 
Vanderbilt,  Orton  and  Simonton,  Pickering,  Fitch  and  Anthony. 

Now  I  admit  the  danger  of  centralization,  and  that  a  great  power 
like  that  of  the  telegraph,  ought  not  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
Federal  administration.  But  a  monopoly  that  is  responsible  to  Con- 
gress is  not  so  dangerous  as  one  that  is  responsible  to  Vanderbilt. 
But  is  there  no  remedy  against  the  abuse  of  such  power  possible  ? 
May  not  the  Government  own  the  telegraph,  and  yet  not  have  the 
control  of  }t  ?  Cannot  it  be  placed,  though  the  property  of  the 
nation,  in  the  hands  of  men  who  are  not  only  above  suspicion,  but 
who  shall  be  independent  of  the  President,  and  not  beholden  to 
him  either  for  their  appointment  or  continuance  in  office  ?  It  can 
be  done  ;  and  it  is  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world  to  put  not  only 
the  telegraph,  but  the  great  railroad  interests  of  the  country  under 
a  direction  that  shall  be  efficient  and  harmonious,  and  yet  be  inde-  * 
pendent  of  the  Federal  Government—  so  independent,  that  Imper- 
ial Caesar  could  not  turn  off  a  brakernan,  or  find  a  place  for  a 
favorite. 


—   18  — 

For  the  Government  to  purchase  all  the  railroads,  or  even  a 
quarter  of  them,  and  try  to  mangage  them,  is  preposterous.  A 
measure  of  this  kind  would  not  be  approved  by  the  people,  and 
hence  it  is  idle  to  discuss  its  merits  or  feasibility.  It  would  so  in- 
crease the  national  debt,  as  to  seriously  prejudice  the  country's 
credit,  and  would  give  occasion  for  a  standing  army  of  office-hold- 
ers so  numerous  as  to  be  dangerous.  Civil  Sevice  Reform,  or  some 
other  scheme,  must  be  devised,  by  which  the  management  of  the 
road  should  not  be  subject  to  Federal  interference  :  and  even  then 
the  Government  must  begin  by  purchasing  or  building  only  one  or 
two  great  highways  from  the  granaries  of  the  West  to  the  sea- 
shore, and  with  a  view  specially,  if  not  entirely,  to  reducing  the 
cost  of  transportation. 

For  many  years  the  people  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  have  been 
groaning  under  the  extortions  of  the  railroads.  So  large  a  part  of 
all  they  could  raise  has  been  taken  to  get  the  rest  to  market,  they 
have  found  that  even  with  industry  and  economy  and  abundant 
crops,  they  would  make  but  little  more  than  a  meager  subsistence  ; 
while  the  managers  and  directors  of  the  roads  have  as  a  rule  be- 
come so  rich  as  to  reckon  their  ill-gotten  gains  by  millions.  These 
enormous  fortunes  have  all  been  realized  by  overcharging  the  farm- 
ers, the  merchants  and  the  general  public.  Each  million  of  Van- 
derbilt,  of  Drew,  of  Jay  Gould  and  of  the  departed  Jim  Fisk,  rep- 
resented the  toil  and  sweat,  the  hard  fare  and  the  extra  hours  of 
labor  of  the  workingman,  so  that  they  have  all  clothed  themselves 
with  curses  as  with  a  garment.  In  casting  about  for  relief 
from  this  monopoly  of  transportation,  the  plundered  farmers  have 
proposed  such  national  and  State  legislation  as  wrould  compel  the 
roads  to  charge  only  a  certain  price,  both  for  freight  and  fare.  But 
measures  of  this  kind  can  bring  little  relief,  for  what  power 
short  of  an  absolute  despotism  can  compel  a  man  or  a  company  to 
carry  freight  at  all,  or  at  a  faster  or  cheaper  rate  than  is  suited  to  its 
own  interest  or  convenience.  The  goverment,  it  is  true,  may  require 
uniformity  and  general  rates  for  everybody,  and  that  freight  or  fare 
shall  not  exceed  a  given  amount  per  mile  ;  but  what  if  under  this 
law  a  company  finds  it  must  lose  money  on  every  train  ?  who  then  is 
to  compel  it  to  light  its  fires  or  run  its  engines  ? 

The  good  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois  thought  to  help  them- 
selves by  passing  a  law  that  no  higher  rates  should  be  charged  on 
local  freight  for  short  distances  than  was  charged  for  through 
freight  across  the  State.  Now  as  the  local  business  is  nearly  al- 
Avays  the  principal  source  of  revenue,  it  was  inevitable. that  in  ad- 
justing the  new  rates  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  law,  the 
prices  on  through  freights  and  fares  must  be  augumented,  while  the 
local  rates  would  be  diminished.  But  on  the  through  routes  there 


—  19  — 

is  great  competition,  and  if  the  roads  were  compelled  to  raise  the 
price  of  transportation  across  the  State,  then  must  the  through 
freights  seek  other  routes  and  avoid  Illinois  in  their  transit  east  and 
west.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  local  rates  were  reduced  to 
correspond  with  those  for  long  distances,  than  the  roads  would  lose 
money  on  half  the  trains  they  run.  In  that  case  they  would  run  a 
less  number  of  them,  and  many  places  before  accommodated  would 
cease  to  hear  the  whistle^  of  the  locomotive.  In  this  country  there 
is  no  power  to  compel  a  railroad  company  to  run  its  trains  any  more 
than  there  is  to  compel  a  private  citizen  to  go  to  church  or  abstain 
from  meat  on  Friday.  Uniform  rules  prescribed  by  the  govern- 
ment can  never  secure  equal  justice  under  such  a  multiplicity  of 
circumstances  and  such  a  variety  of  conditions  as  is  presented  by 
the  railroad  interests  of  this  country.  There  must  be  a  plan  de- 
vised that  will  admit  of  a  certain  ampunt  of  flexibility,  so  that  every 
man  shall  be  required  to  pay  cost  and  no  more  for  what  he 
receives. 

Therefore  I  say  there  is  no  remedy  but  for  the  Federal  Govern- 
ernment  to  come  to  the  rescue.  The  cities  of  the  East  realise  that 
that  they  are  the  losers,  as  well  as  the  Western  farmers,  in  having 
the  crops  of  the  West  rot  on  the  ground,  or  the  corn  burned  for 
fuel.  To  manufacture  cheaply  they  must  have  cheap  bread  and 
cheap  meat,  but  these  things  they  can  get  only  with  cheaper 
freights.  With  cheaper  food  they  can  extend  and  increase  their 
business,  and  the  primary  question  is,  how  to  get  it.  The  capital- 
ists of  New  England,  always  noted  for  sagacity,  see  that  there  are 
no  other  ways  for  bringing  the  grain  crop  of  the  W^est  to  the  sea 
except  by  the  way  of  the  Vanderbilt,  Drew  &  Gould  railroads. 
They  find  that  the  St.  Lawrence  river  may  be  made  available  as  a 
great  highway,  and  that  other  routes  for  transportation  may  be 
availed  of  to  bring  down  the  price  of  freights,  and  the  interests,  of 
the  great  manufacturing  towns  of  the  East  are  so  vast  that  they  will 
have  cheaper  connection  with  the  West  in  spite  of  the  railroad 
kings  of  New  York,  and  with  or  without  the  aid  of  the  Grangers. 
The  interests  of  rival  cities  on  the  sea  coast  must  in  the  end  compel 
reduced  rates.  In  anticipation  of  such  opposition,  the  moneyed  men 
of  New  York,  not  of  the  railroad  circle,  who  wish  to  concentrate  the 
whole  business  of  the  country  at  New  York,  have  projected  an  air- 
line double-track  freight  road  from  Chicago  to  New  York.  This, 
they  think,  would  give  the  latter  city  an  advantage  over  any  other 
sea-board  town  ;  but  when  completed  it  would  be  run  entirely  in  the 
interests  of  its  owners,  and  would  be  just  as  selfish  or  eager  for  big 
profits  as  Vanderbilt,  or  Drew,  or  Jay  Gould.  They  would  keep 
up  their  schudule  to  the  highest  notch  possible  without  driving 
away  freight  to  other  cities  and  by  other  roads.  Men  never  build 


railroads  for  philanthropy,  but  for  profits ;  and  the  world  is  old 
enough  for  people  to  have  learned  that  they  can  never  confer  pe- 
culiar power  or  grant  special  privileges  on  individuals  or  corpora- 
tions that  will  not  use  them  and  abuse  them  for  their  own  special 
benefit. 

That  this  road  may  be  run  in  the  interests  of  the  people  and 
with  no  regard  to  profits  of  directors  or  stockholders,  it  should,  it 
must  be  owned  by  the  United  States.  It  should  be  a  freight  and 
emigrant  road,  made  and  ballasted  in  the  best  manner  possible ; 
the  trains  to  run  at  a  low  rate  of  speed,  and  the  schudule  of  freight 
and  passage  should  be  so  low  as  but  to  pay  the  cost  of  keeping  the 
road  in  repair,  and  an  interest  of  say  six  per  cent,  on  its  cost  to  the 
Government.  Thus  managed  the  Government  could  never  be  a 
loser,  and  the  people  who  used  the  road  and  had  the  benefit  of  it, 
would  be  those  who  paid  the  interest  on  its  cost. 

So  built  and  so  managed,  the  road  would  carry  freight  for  one- 
fourth  or  one-half  of  the  present  rates,  and  having  established  the 
fact  that  one  road  could  carry  freights  and  passengers  at  such  re- 
duced prices,  people  would  understand  that  other  roads  could  do 
the  same,  at  least  approximately  ;  and  if  they  did  not,  it  would  be 
because  of  mismanagement,  Credit  Mobilier  rings,  or  from  a  de- 
sire to  pay  large  dividends  on  stock  highly  diluted  with  water. 

But  this  road  would  not  stop  at  Chicago.  It  would  be  extended 
across  the  broad  plains  of  Illinois,  and  Iowa  to  the  Missouri 
River,  and  thence  inevitably  to  San  Francisco.  That  the  Union 
Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  must  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment sooner  or  later,  unless  the  first  bond-holders  are  literally 
robbed  of  everything,  I  suppose  no  one  doubts.  That  the  com- 
panies ever  expect  to  pay  for  them,  and  own  them  with  a  clear 
title,  and  no  unpaid  bond  or  claim  hanging  over  them,  I  suppose  no 
intelligent  person  believes.  That  part  of  the  great  scheme  may, 
therefore,  be  said  to  be  already  half  accomplished,  and  with  a  peo- 
ple united  and  determined  no  longer  to  submit  to  the  extortions  of 
the  existing  monopolies,  but  to  have  a  government  telegraph,  and 
one  great  central  thoroughfare,  which  shall  serve  as  a  regulator 
and  guide  to  other  roads,  it  will  be  but  a  short  time  before  the 
extortions  now  practiced,  both  by  telegraphs  and  railroads,  will 
find  a  lasting  remedy. 

The  questions  that  now  first  occurr  in  connection  with  this  plan 
are,  how  can  such  an  increase  of  power  be  conferred  on  the  Federal 
Government  without  risk  of  abuse  ?  Will  not  the  people,  from  a 
wholesome  dread  of  centralization,  rather  suffer  present  evils  than 
venture  on  an  experiment  so  dangerous  to  Republican  institutions  ? 

But  these  dangers  may  all  be  avoided,  and  then  the  objections 
will  be  answered.  I  will  tell  you  how,  and  I  claim  nothing  new 


—  21  — 

nor  original  in  what  I  have   to  propose.     My  plan  is  something 
similar  to,  and  yet  very  different  from,  what  the  greatest  think 
recent  times,  John  Stewart  Mill,  proposed  in  his  essay  on   1'i'prr- 
sentative  Government  for  forming  an   Upper   Chamber  of  Parlia- 
ment to  supplant  the  effete  and  useless  House  of  Lords. 

Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  United  States  shall  be  parceled 
out  into  seven  divisions  ;  more  might  be  better,  but  for  the  present 
I  will  say  seven.  Let  the  New  England  States  constitute  one  of 
these  ;  the* Pacific  States  another ;  the  great  Middle  States  the 
third  ;  the  Western  States  the  fourth  ;  the  Northwestern  States 
the  fifth ;  the  Southern  and  Southeastern  the  sixth  and  seventh. 
Now,  having  in  the  organic  act  for  building  or  purchasing  the  road 
established  certain  rules,  let  a  board  of  directors  be  constituted, 
who,  under  the  provisions  of  the  same  act,  shall  have  the  entire  di- 
rection of  the  road  and  all  its  affairs,  and  these  directors  to  be  as 
independent  of  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  also  of  Congress, 
as  are  the  governors  of  the  several  States.  In  their  appointments, 
the  President  should  have  neither  hand  nor  voice,  for  they  should 
come  into,  office  under  the  organic  law.  At  the  creation  of  the 
board,  the  director  for  each  division  of  the  States  should  be  the 
ex-governor,  who  had  served  as  governor  for  the  longest  period, 
and  as  vacancies  occurred,  they  should  be  filled,  not  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  President,  not  by  popular  election,  but  the  man 
who  for  the  most  continuous  years  has  been  chosen  and  re-chosen 
years  before  as  the  chief  magistrate  of  his  State,  should,  in  virtue 
of  these  endorsements,  succeed  to  this  high  and  responsible  post ; 
the  highest,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  President,  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  land. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  board  of  directors  thus  constituted 
would  contain  many  practical  railroad  men.  But  they  would  be 
sure  to  be  men  of  practical  sense,  of  approved  integrity  and  general 
ability.  If  not  experienced  in  the  business  they  would  not  be  wed- 
ded to  any  favorite  theories  or  prejudiced  by  former  competition  or 
rivalries.  And  it'  not  practical  railroad  men,  they  would  at  least 
have  the  judgment  to  employ  those  that  were,  and  to  supplement 
their  own  deficiencies  with  the  best  talent  in  the  country.  In 
attempting  any  complex  or  untried  business,  it  is  well  known  that 
next  to  knowing  all  about  it  is  the  consciousness  of  not  understand- 
ing it,  and  a  realizing  sense  of  the  necessity  of  getting  the  assist- 
ance of  those  who  .  do. 

The  promoters  of  the  Central  Pacific  R.  R.  were  none  of  them 
engineers  nor  practical  railroad  men  when  they  entered  on  their 
great  undertaking.  A  dry  goods  man,  a  lawyer,  two  hardware 
dealers,  and  an  oil  merchant  made  up  the  Company,  and  not  one 
of  them  knew  more  of  building  railroads  than  he  did  of  building 


22  — 

ships  ;  and  yet  their  worst  enemies  will  give  them  credit  for  having 
managed  their  affairs  with  great  ability  and  probably  more  success- 
fully than  if  one  or  more  of  them  had  been  railroad  builders  by 
trade.  But  as  they  all  enjoyed  equal  ignorance,  they  could  agree 
on  employing  the  best  talent  to  be  found,  thus  supplementing  their 
own  hard  sense  with  the  science,  experience  and  skill  of  others. 
So,  I  believe  it  would  be  no  objection  but  rather  an  advantage,  to 
have  a  board  of  directors  of  a  work  or  interest  so  vast,  composed 
of  men  noted  rather  for  their  practical  sense  than  for  any  specialty 
as  engineers,  contractors,  or  financiers.  By  having  the  control 
and  direction  placed  in  such  hands,  the  much  dreaded  centralization 
would  be  entirely  avoided  and  both  honesty  and  efficiency  be  secured. 
Y\  ith  one  great  main  line  at  first,  and  afterwards  two,  if  the  success 
of  the  first  should  warrant  it,  then  three  or  more,  traversing  the 
continent,  under  such  management  the  other  lines  would  find  they 
had  real  competition.  The  owners  and  directors  of  other  roads 
would  be  obliged  to  conform  to  nearly  the  same  tariff  of  charges, 
or  else  they  would  find  narrow-guage  roads  built  in  great  numbers 
as  feeders  to  the  great  air-line  tracks,  thus  leaving  the  old  lines 
with  little  to  support  them. 

Of  course  a  measure  of  this  kind  can  only  be  carried  through  on 
the  imperative  demand  of  the  people.  The  great  railroad  monopo- 
lists would  oppose  it  at  every  stage,  and  every  purchasable  Con- 
gressman and  every  purchasable  newspaper  would  denounce  it  as 
fraught  with  ruin  to  the  country  and  the  destruction  of  vested 
rights.  But  these  monopolists  have  for  years  taken  the  cream  of 
the  nation's  prosperity,  have  watered  its  stock  to  five  times  its  cost, 
and  received  a  high  rate  of  interest  on  its  inflated  valuation,  and 
it  is  neither  hardship  nor  injustice  for  them  or  the  telegraph  com- 
pany to  receive  the  average  returns  of  capital  invested  in  other 
industries. 

Such  is  my  plan  in  th  <  rough  for  placing  the  railroads  in  such 
hands  that,  being  built  or  bought  by  the  Government  for  the  whole 
people,  they  may  be  supported  by  the  whole  people,  and  run  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  people,  at  the  same  time  that  the  power  and 
influence  of  the  Federal  administration  shall  be  in  no  whit  increased. 
Perhaps  others  besides  the  railroad  monopolists  and  kings  would 
object  to  such  a  policy.  The  destructives,  levellers  and  communists 
would  object  to  any  solution  of  the  problem  that  would  remove  all 
cause  of  complaint,  and  would  join  hands  with  the  monopolists  to 
defeat  a  measure  that  should  bring  prosperity  to  the  land ,  if  at  the 
same  time  it  took  away  all  just  ground  of  complaint  against  the 
Government.  Destruction  is  the  god  of  their  idolatry,  and  at  this 
time,  when  the  people  are  justly  clamorous  for  a  constructive  states- 
manlike policy  that  shall  relieve  them  from  their  grievous  burdens. 


—  23  — 

these  night-birds  of  ill  omen  are  heard  croaking  and  threatening,  as 
if  in  destruction  alone  people  might  find  redress  of  all  their  griev- 
ances. Men  of  this  class  may  be  popular  for  a  time.  Thus  was 
Absalom,  thus  Kobespierre,  thus  John  Wilkcs,  thus  Aaron  Burr. 
But,  fortunately,  unreason  always  rests  on  a  fragile  throne,  and 
demagogues  who  appeal  to  popular  passions,  and  who  incite  to  de- 
stroy, are  sure  to  receive  the  final  reward  of  an  infamous  or  detested 
memory.  The  man  who  builds  an  aquaduct  that  for  centuries  may 
give  water  to  the  thirsty,  or  a  viaduct  to  shorten  or  ease  the  jour- 
ney of  the  footsore  traveler,  deserves  the  gratitude  of  future  gen- 
erations. But  to  him,  whose  genius  is  only  for  destruction,  the 
best  boon  is  neglect  and  obscurity,  to  be  followed  by  impenetrable 
oblivion. 

There  is  another  evil  in  California,  more  disastrous  in  its  effects 
than  either  the  railroad  or  telegraph  monopolies.  In  one  sense  this, 
too,  is  a  monopoly,  as  it  inures  entirely  to  the  benefit  of  a  few,  and 
at  the  expense  of  the  many.  I  allude  to  the  combined  efforts  of 
the  money  lenders  to  keep  out  capital  from  abroad,  whereby  the 
rate  of  interest  is  kept  up  to  usurious  rates.  This  monopoly,  though 
in  one  sense  not  a  monopoly,  as  it  is  open  to  all  who  have  money  to 
lend,  is  the  creature  of  a  dozen  men  in  San  Francisco.  Their  ob- 
ject is  to  prevent  any  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest ;  and  as  this 
can  be  done  most  effectually  by  keeping  out  money  from  abroad, 
their  policy  is  in  direct  antagonism  to  everybody  else.  Its  origin 
was  an  unpatriotic,  selfish,  dishonest  desire  to  avoid  the  payment  of 
honest  debts  to  their  full  amount.  Our  high-toned,  honorable  capi- 
talists and  merchants  found  when  the  legal  tender  act  was  passed 
that  they  could  take  advantage  of  the  Government's  necessities,  and 
get  a  discharge  from  their  debts  by  paying  them  in  depreciated  cur- 
rency. When  this  sneaking  repudiation  had  been  achieved,  our 
money  kings  found  that  they  could  make  semi-treason  doubly  profit- 
able ;  for  having  paid  their  own  debts  with  a  depreciated  currency, 
they  could  now,  by  keeping  that  currency  out  of  the  State  as  a  cir- 
culating medium,  have  a  monopoly  of  money  lending.  So  long  as 
greenbacks  did  not  come  to  California,  there  was  no  danger  that 
eastern  capitalists  would  send  money  here  to  invest,  as  its  transfer 
would  involve  a  loss  of  from  12  to  50  per  cent.  Though  the  inter- 
est here  was  double  what  it  was  in  New  Englard  on  securities 
equally  safe,  yet  who  would  bring  his  money  here  to  invest  it, 
when  a  toll  or  reduction  of  two  years'  interest  would  be  the  condi- 
tion of  its  introduction  ?  With  this  import  tax  on  money,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  it  does  not  come  here  ;  no  wonder  that  we  have  so  lit- 
tle manufacturing ;  no  wonder  that  our  streets  are  full  of  men  and 
boys  willing  to  work,  but  who  can  find  nothing  to  do.  To  establish 
varied  industries  in  California,  requires  the  influx  of  large  capital; 


21  

that  influx  would  reduce  the  rate  of  interest,  and  therefore  the  Shy- 
locks  of  California  have  decreed  that  the  national  currency  shall 
not  be  tolerated  on  this  Coast.  They  are  and  ever  have  been  finan- 
cial rebels,  whom,  both  during  and  since  the  Avar,  have  kept  Califor- 
nia in  a  state  of  semi-rebellion. 

This  monopoly  of  capital  is  well-nigh  absolute  here.  The  very 
man  who  paid  off  his  own  debts  at  the  East  in  greenbacks,  will 
publicly  post  his  neighbor  as  a  swindler  if  he  attempts  the  same 
thing  on  himself.  This  he  may  be  loath  to  do,  but  his  masters,  the 
great  capitalists  on  whom  he  depends  for  accommodation,  will 
tolerate  no  disloyalty  among  their  subjects.  Gold,  gold,  gold,  that 
must  be  his  standard  of  patriotism,  morality,  and  religion  ;  and  he 
who  refuses  homage  to  the  golden  calf,  is  set  upon  and  followed 
with  the  cry  of  "  mad  dog."  When  Treasurer  Cheeseman  undertook 
to  convince  you  that  it  was  your  duty  as  well  as  your  interest  to 
be  loyal -and  true  to  the  Union,  you  mobbed  him  and  threatened 
him  with  death ;  arid  yet,  had  you  followed  his  advice,  you  would 
have  saved  from  five  to  ten  millions  at  least  annually  to  the  State 
of  California. 

That  this  is  so  is  apparent  when  you  consider  that,  if  gold  and 
silver  were  the  only  currency  throughout  the  United  States,  prices 
nominally  would  everywhere  be  very  much  less  than  they  are. 
The  man  of  a  hundred  thousand,  and  the  man  of  ten  thousand, 
would  count  his  wealth  as  nominally  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  what 
it  now  is.  Yet  for  exchange  or  purchase  of  other  property,  it 
would  buy  as  much  as  now.  He  would,  in  fact,  be  just  as  rich,  for 
the  emission  of  paper  does  not  create  wealth.  It  does,  however, 
inflate  prices  in  nominal  values,  so  that  what  we  import  from  the 
East  costs  us  from  30  to  50  per  cent,  more  in  gold  than  it  would 
were  there  no  paper  money  in  existence,  and  everything  was  kept 
down  to  a  specie  basis.  We  have  always  paid  (as  well  before  the 
war,  when  the  bills  of  solvent  banks  were  at  par,  as  ever  since 
greenbacks  were  invented)  for  the  goods  we  have  imported  from 
the  Eastern  States  at  the  inflated  prices  caused  by  the  use  of 
paper  money ;  and  hence  it  is  as  clear  as  the  sun  at  noonday,  that 
our  gold  has  not  the  same  purchasing  power  as  it  would  have  were 
it  the  exclusive  currency  throughout  the  whole  country.  And  it  is 
equally  clear  that  if  the  money  necessary  for  the  business  of  this 
State  were  here  and  in  greenbacks,  prices  of  everything  else  would 
partake  of  the  inflation  of  the  East.  True,  our  wheat  and  our 
wool  would  bring  no  more  in  foreign  markets,  but  our  gold  arid  our 
silver  would  buy  moi;e  domestic  goods  in  Eastern  markets. 

Our  adherence  to  a  metallic  currency,  does  not  in  the  least  save 
us  from  the  panics  and  fluctuations  of  the  East.  When  gold  goes 
up  in  Wall  Street,  the  effect  is  instantly  felt  on  California  Street. 


A  few  months  since,  and  there  was  a  rise  in  the  price  of  gold  of 
nearly  ten  per  cent,  in  New  York.  Instantly  every  man  who  owed 
anything  at  the  East,  gathered  up  all  the  gold  he  could  gi-t  and  sent 
it  forward,  as  it  would  buy  more  greenbacks,  and  consequently  pay 
off  more  debts  than  it  would  have  done  a  few  weeks  earlier,  or 
probably  a  few  weeks  later.  And  in  this  later  panic,  which  is 
hardly  yet  over,  San  Francisco  has  felt  the  effects  as  much  as  any 
city  in  the  Union  in  proportion  to  her  population.  This  panic 
scarcely  reached  here,  yet  vast  sums  of  gold  were  quietly  sent  for- 
ward to  be  loaned  out  at  a  half  cent,  cent  or  cent  and  a  half  per 
day,  should  the  panic  last  as  long  as  our  Midases  hoped  for. 

But  for  the  fact  that  our  vast  grain  crop  was  just  going  forward 
to  be  drawn  against,  our  money  lenders  would  have  had  a  golden 
harvest.  "By  refusing  extensions  and  demanding  higher  margins, 
they  would  have  gathered  all  the  securities  possible,  in  the  way  of 
mortgages,  bonds  and  stocks,  into  their  own  hands ;  and  when  the 
storm  cleared  away  they  would  have  been  some  millions  of  dollars 
richer ;  for  the  little  fish  would  have  been  swallowed  up-  by  the  big 
whales,  for  whose  benefit  the  gold  currency  is  maintained. 

The  great,  greatest  want  of  California  is  home  manufactures. 
They  are  wanted  to  give  employment  to  our  men,  and  boys,  and 
girls.  They  are  required  to  create  a  home  market  for  the  agricul- 
turists. But  interest  is  too  high  to  justify  investments  in  manufact- 
uring, arid  will  be  so  until  we  change  our  currency.  With  that  change 
millions  of  money  will  come  here  from  the  East,  so  many  and  vast 
enterprises  will  be  undertaken,  so  many  new  fields  of  labor  that 
every  man  and  every  boy  can  find  such  occupation,  at  fair  wages, 
as  his  tastes  and  'capacity  fit  him  for.  At  present  if  there  be  an 
appalling,  a  frightful  aspect  in  our  future,  it  is  in  the  fearful 
growth  of  what  in  the  language  of  the  street  is  called  hoodlumism. 
Our  best  citizens,  the  substantial  workingmen  of  the  city,  those  who 
read  the  papers,  pay  most  of  the  taxes,  and  as  they  sway  this 
way  or  that  carry  the  elections,  who  when  they  had  sons  born 
to  them,  rejoiced  and  hoped  to  bring  them  up  in  the  paths  of  in- 
dustry and  virtue,  to  be  like  themselves  good  and  useful  members 
of  society,  find  as  their  boys  are  growing  to  early  manhood  that 
there  is  no  place  for  them.  They  are  not  needed  ;  there  is  no 
field  of  useful  employment  open  to  them.  They  cannot  be  appren- 
ticed to  learn  trades,  for  the  monopoly  of  labor  enjoyed  by  the 
trades  union  will  not  allow  the  manufacturing  capitalists  to  take 
apprentices.  The  artizan  or  mechanic  who  cries  out  loudly  against 
other  combinations,  attends  caucuses  and  marches  in  torchlight 
processions,  shouting  "  down  with  monopolies,"  considers  that  his  own 
trades  union  has  a  vested  right  to  do  all  the  labor  in  his  peculiar 
line,  and  that  whoever  attempts  to  act  independent  of  their  organi- 
zation is  a  common  enemy  to  be  destroyed. 


—  26  — 

I  can  imagine  no  more  gloomy  house  than  that  of  the  worthy  in- 
dustrious man  and  wife,  who  have  several  sons  from  twelve  to 
twenty  years  of  age.  As  children,  they  have  always  been  sur- 
rounded by  good  home  influences,  and  could  their  vital  powers  be 
directed  to  useful  occupations,  they  would  become  hone?t  men  and 
useful  citizens.  But  the  father  can  find  nothing  for  them  to  do. 
His  own  time  is  taken  up  in  providing  for  them  food  and  clothing. 
The  boys  cannot  be  idle.  They  must  be  at  work,  or  they  soon  get 
into  mischief.  They  form  acquaintances  among  the  vicious,  and 
the  parents  soon  loose  all  control  over  them.  They  wander  about 
at  late  hours,  and  the  father  and  mother,  as  they  sit  at  the  family 
hearthstone  at  the  close  of  a  hard  day's  toil,  have  no  longer  any 
pleasant  topics  of  conversation.  They  hear  the  shout  of  the  hood- 
lum in  the  street,  and  with  fear  and  trembling  they  listen,  dreading 
lest  the  door  open  and  their  own  joy  of  other  days,  their  first-born, 
should  enter  staggering  and  drunk ;  or  they  fear  the  greater  sor- 
row of  hearing  that  in  a  drunken  brawl  he  has  broken  the  head  of 
some  comrade  or  Chinaman,  and  been  taken  up  to  prison. 

0,  it  is  terrible  to  think  of  the  array  of  youth  that  are  growing 
up  in  California  to  be  thieves  and  vagabonds.  Hundreds  and 
thousands  of  parents  see  their  children  going  in  the  broad  road  to 
destruction,  and  they  have  no  power  to  hold  them  back.  The 
youthful  energy  must  find  vent  and  spend  itself  in  useful  occupation, 
or  it  will  carry  them  to  perdition.  But  the  monopolists  of  capital 
will  tolerate  no  change  that  will  bring  money  from  abroad  to  be 
loaned  at  so  low  a  rate  of  interest  as  to  justify  the  establishment  of 
home  manufactures  and  other  varied  industries  in  which  this  sur- 
plus of  youthful  energy  might  be  employed.  Let  the  parents  of 
those  children,  then,  bear  in  mind  that  our  own  richest  men,  who  for 
their  own  purposes  are  keeping  out  the  national  cunency,  and 
thus  making  the "  field  of  industry  as  contracted  as  possible,  are 
coining  their  extra  interest  from  the  very  blood,  the  bodies,  and 
souls  of  their  children,  who  by  them  are  driven  into  the  ways  of 
vice,  and  crime,  and  death. 

And  yet  this  monopoly,  with  all  its  disastrous  effects,  its  crushing 
influences  on  the  State's  prosperity,  its  filling  the  country  with 
hoodlums,  candidates  for  the  State  Prison  and  the  gallows,  is  sus- 
tained and  justified  by  the  self-styled  independent  press.  Those 
papers  which  enjoy  the  monopoly  of  the  Western  Union  telegraph, 
with  its  complement  of  the  Associated  Press,  maintain  that  this 
monopoly  of  capital  is  a  blessed  thing.  Well  they  may.  The 
proprietors  are  all  of  the  money-lending  class,  and  they  see  that 
the  rate  of  interest  on  their  loans  must  come  down  with  the  intro- 
duction of  greenbacks.  They  may  well  sustain  monstrous  monop- 
olies, for  they  have  no  young  hoodlums  in  their  families  to  cause 


—  27  — 

them  anxiety,  and  what  matters  it  to  them  that  the  sons  of  other 
men  are  driven  into  the  ways  of  temptation. 

]>nt  what  is  the  remedy  ?  A  repeal  of  the  specific  contract  law 
would  now  be  ineffective,  as  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  has  declared  such  contracts  legal  and  binding.  The  State 
Legislature  can  do  much  towards  affecting  a  change,  and  if  the 
needed  legislation  could  be  had  and  be  sustained  by  the  farming 
community,  the  thing  would  be  accomplished.  In  the  first  place, 
people  should  be  familiarized  with  the  national  currency,  and  to 
effect  this  a  law  should  be  passed  that  all  taxes  should  be  collected 
in  greenbacks,  and  all  salaries  of  State  officials  paid  in  the  same 
currency.  As  the  general  impression  now  is  that  salaries  are  too 
high,  this  would  be  an  excellent  way  to  reduce  them  from  6  to  12 
per  cent.,  at  the  same  time  that  a  vast  service  would  be  done  to  the 
public  at  large,  by  the  forced  introduction  of  this  amount  of  cur- 
rency as  a  circulating  medium.  And  our  patriotic  law-makers,  it 
is  to  be  presumed,  would  not  be  influenced  by  their  own  selfish  in- 
terest in  a  measure  so  fraught  with  blessings  to  their  constituents. 
They  would  doubtless  delight  to  do  this,  that  their  conduct  might 
stand  forth  to  the  world  in  contrast  with  the  Congressmen  who  voted 
themselves  increased  pay  for  the  future,  and  gratuities  for  the  past 
in  the  shape  of  back  pay.  If  the  railroad  would  imitate  these 
patriotic  legislators,  and  reduce  the  rate  of  fare  and  freight  to  the 
extent  of  the  difference  between  gold  and  greenbacks,  and  never 
receive  at  their  offices  and  stations  anything  but  currency,  that 
more  than  almost  anything  else  would  force  people  to  use  greenbacks 
to  a  considerable  extent,  and  their  introduction  into  the  country 
would  doubtless  so  stimulate  enterprise  and  immigration  that  tt 
would  be  more  than  repaid  by  the  increase  of  business. 

If  to  these  influences  towards  the  introduction  of  the  national 
currency,  that  of  the  farmers  were  joined,  the  thing  would  be  done. 
It'  the  Grangers  would  organize  into  a  self-protecting  society  against 
the  monopolists  of  the  capital,  and  resolve  to  sell  their  wheat  and 
their  wool  for  greenbacks  only,  but  at  their  equivalent  in  gold, 
they  could  compel  the  introduction  of  sufficient  pape.r  money  to 
make  it  the  circulating  medium  of  the  State.  They  have  but  to 
stand  together.  •ANCR°ri  UiBRARy 

Were  it  not  that  this  address  had  run  to  so  great  a  length,  I 
would  like  to  consider  the  transition  state  of  society,  of  commerce, 
and  civilization  in  various  branches.  Owing  to  the  extension  of 
railroads  into  remote  regions,  which  but  a  few  years  ago  could  con- 
tribute nothing  towards  supplying  the  markets  of  the  world,  vast 
tracts  of  before  uncultivated  lands  are  now  made  to  contribute  to 
the  sustenance  of  the  human  family.  The  food  produced  now,*as 
compared  with  former  times,  is  in  proportion  to  the  population,  very 


—  28  — 

much  increased.  Such  vast  tracts  of  land,  that  until  recently 
blossomed  only  to  the  desert  air,  are  now  brought  so  near  a  labor- 
ing population,  b}r  means  of  the  improvements  in  transportation, 
that  they  are  made  to  furnish  food  for  millions  in  the  more  populous 
parts  of  the  world.  Every  year  the  extension  of  the  railroads  into 
the  remoter  regions  of  the  United  States,  towards  the  wilds  of 
Russia,  or  over  the  pampas  of  South  America,  bring  countless  acres 
under  the  plow,  whose  products  come  into  competition  with  those 
from  the  old  grain-growing  regions.  Hence,  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  the  cereals  of  California  can  long  be  exported  with  profit  to 
the  producer.  Owing  to  short  crops,  this  season  in  Europe,  the 
price  of  grain  is  high,  and  farming  throughout  the  United  States  is 
well  remunerated.  Another  year,  and  with  full  crops  in  Germany, 
France,  and  on  the  borders  of  the  Black  Sea,  there  may  be  no 
demand  for  our  surplus  wheat  in  any  part  of  the  world.  What, 
then,  will  our  farmers  do  for  a  market  ?  Will  they  say  that  next 
year  will  be  as  this  year,  and  to-morrow  shall  be  as  this  day,  and 
more  abundantly  ?  then  Wisdom  will  say,  "  thou  fool !  boast  not 
thyself  of  to-morrow,  for  thou  knowest  not  what  a  day  may  bring 
forth."  Prudence,  forecast,  and  statesmanship  would  say,  "  now 
is  the  time  to  embark  in  varied  industries,  to  establish  factories,  to 
commence  the  raising  of  cotton,  silk,  tobacco,  and  every  useful  in- 
dustry that  shall  give  employment  to  men,  and  women,  and  boys, 
and  shall  not,  at  the  same  time,  add  to  the  threatened  surplus  of 
cereals."  With  such  a  population,  that  shall  always  furnish  a  home 
market  to  the  producer,  California  would  be  independent  and  self- 
supporting,  and  with  their  superior  natural  advantages,  her  peo- 
ple might  become  the  richest  and  most  highly  favored  in  the  world. 
But  the  influence  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  extending  the 
acreage  of  land  available  for  tillage,  is  but  one  phase  of  the  revo- 
lution wrought  by  modern  inventions.  They  have  not  only  prac- 
tically increased  the  number  of  food-producing  acres,  but  they 
have  diminished,  by  three-quarters,  the  amount  of  labor  necessary  to 
secure  the  comforts  of  life.  In  times  not  far  remote,  and  even  in 
the  memory  of  men  not  yet  old,  it  required,  in  order  to  get  the  food 
and  clothing  necessary  for  life  and  health,  that  nearly  every  man, 
and  woman  too,  should  labor,  and  labor  hard  for  ten,  twelve,  or  four- 
teen hours  a  day.  Those  of  us  who  are  middle-aged  men  can  remem- 
ber how  hardly  were  earned  the  first  few  dollars  which  we  could  call 
our  own.  We  can  also  remember  how  little  money  was  in  circula- 
tion, and  that  the  hardiest  men  were  glad  to  labor  from  before  sun- 
rise till  after  sunset,  for  ten,  twelve,  or  fourteen  dollars  per  month. 
And  these  prices  were  all  the  farmers  could  afford  to  pay.  They 
were  obliged  to  work  themselves  as  hard  as  any  of  their  men,  in 
order  to  feed,  and  clothe,  and  school  their  children,  and  yet  make 


—  29  — 

the  two  ends  meet.  They  must  rigidly  economize  to  keep  out  of 
debt ;  and  the  most  the  farmer  could  produce,  that  would  bear 
transportation  to  market,  must  go  to  get  money  to  pay  taxes,  and 
such  other  things  as  salt,  tea,  coffee,  and  sugar,  in  such  quantities 
as  could  be  afforded.  Of  this,  one-half  was  consumed  in  getting 
the  other  half  to  market ;  so  that  what  now  would  be  considered  a 
meager  living  was  about  all  that  the  most  thrifty  and  industrious 
could  get  for  their  incessant  toil.  But  times  have  changed.  The 
inventor  has  scotched  the  old  serpent,  and  labor-saving  machinery 
has  lifted  the  heavy  burdens  from  the  sons  of  toil.  The  steam 
engine,  the  reaper,  the  thresher,  the  spinning-jenny,  and  the 
thousand  modern  inventions,  have  so  multiplied  the  powers  of  pro- 
duction that  not  one-third,  perhaps  not  one-fourth,  of  the  manual 
labor  is  now  required  to  secure  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life 
that  it  took  forty  years  ago.  Now  shall  capital  get  all  the  benefits 
of  these  improvements  ?  Shall  the  hours  of  labor  be  the  same  as 
when  it  took  them  four  times  the  amount  of  human  toil  that  it 
does  now  to  secure  the  comforts  of  life  ?  I  say,  no  ;  labor  has  a 
right  to  share  with  capital  the  blessings  that  the  world  has  derived 
from  the  inventor's  brains.  If  the  man  of  toil  must  now  work  the 
same  number  of  hours  as  formerly  to'  make  a  bare  living,  what 
advantageth  it  him  that  Watt,  and  Whitney,  and  McCormick,  and 
Howe,  and  Woodworth,  have  ever  lived?  The  benefits  nearly  all 
go  to  the  rich,  whose  accumulations  would  have  startled  their  fa- 
thers ;  and  as  the  iron  hands  of  the  steam-engine  do  the  work  of 
human  sinews,  the  competition  in  the  field  of  labor  is  made  more 
sharp,  and  the  laborer  is  left  more  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
employer,  because  of  labor-saving  machinery. 

Now  though  capital  has  ever  striven  to  retain  all  these  advan- 
tages to  itself,  nevertheless,  some  of  the  conveniences  and  luxuries 
unkncnyn  to  the  laboring  classes  fifty  years  ago,  come  now  within 
their  reach.  The  man  dependent  on  his  daily  toil  even  now, 
if  he  would  feed  and  clothe  his  family  comfortably,  and  educate  his 
children,  must  labor  hard  and  make  his  days  long.  But  there  is  no 
necessity  for  men  to  labor  as  they  used  to  for  the  bare  necessaries 
of  life.  As  with  the  advantages  of  modern  inventions,  not  more 
than  a  third  part  of  the  manual  labor  is  required  to  secure  the 
means  of  support  as  formerly ;  it  follows  that  if  men  labor  now  as 
they  did  then,  and  yet  get  but  a  bare  living,  the  larger  part  of  their 
earnings  go  to  swell  the  gains  of  the  rich.  Hence  we  see  colossal 
fortunes  accumulating  on  every  hand,  and  in  their  train  follow  lux- 
ury, immorality,  arid  extravagance.  The  very  submission  of  the 
many  to  excessive  and  unnecessary  labor,  serves  but  to  pamper  the 
depraved  tastes  and  vices  of  the  few.  It  is  not  only  the  right,  but 
the  duty  of  the  laboring  classes  to  refuse  to  labor  as  did  their 


fathers.  Eight  hours  a  day,  as  a  rule,  will  be  enough,  if  two-thirds 
or  one-half  can  be  employed  for  that  number  of  hours,  to  produce 
all  that  is  demanded  for  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  entire  peo- 
ple ;  and  when  the  laboring  classes  submit  to  do  more,  the  excess 
goes  only  to  the  luxuries  and  hoardings  of  the  rich. 

The  inequalities  of  fortune  constitute  one  of  the  greatest  dangers 
to  a  republican  form  of  government.  They  encourage  profligacy 
in  the  rich,  and  cause  discontent  and  vice  in  the  poor.  Excessive 
luxury  is  always  the  harbinger  of  dissolution.  Hence  I  regard  the 
eight-hour  movement  as  a  healthful  and  hopeful  sign  ;  and  though 
the  efforts  of  some  of  its  advocates  to  enforce  their  measures  by  law- 
less interference  with  the  liberty  of  others,  is  not  to  be  justified  nor 
tolerated,  yet  the  fundamental  idea  of  less  hours  to  the  laborer  is 
patriotic  and  right,  and  its  supporters  are  justified  in  endeavoring 
by  all  legal  and  moral  means,  to  make  it  the  rule  and  usage. 

I  have  thus  spoken  of  the  living  issues  before  the  country.  But 
what  are  measures  or  theories,  or  even  laws,  as  compared  with  a 
high  moral  standard  among  the  masses  of  the  people  ?  Long  ex- 
perience has  demonstrated  that  no  theory  of  state-craft,  no  code 
of  laws,  no  constitutional  guarantees,  can  be  made  to  avail  against 
general  ignorance  and  immorality.  Only  an  intelligent  and  an 
honest  people  can  long  preserve  individual  liberty  and  equal  rights. 
Corruption  in  high  places,  if  allowed  to  pass  unrebuked,  is  sure  to 
be  followed  and  imitated  by  the  masses,  till  such  a  thing  as  political 
morality  is  the  exception,  and  official  honesty  unknown.  To  this 
general  depravity  succeeds  anarchy,  which  in  turn  is  always  fol- 
lowed by  violence  and  ends  in  despotism.  History,  if  it  teaches 
nothing  else,  teaches  this  ;  and  it  would  be  well  if  the  people  of 
California  would  now  consider  their  own  moral  bearings,  and  ask 
themselves  whether  or  no  those  who  are  the  loudest  in  their  outcry 
against  salary  grabs  and  back  pay  steals  are  not  indulging  in  the 
veriest  cant  and  hypocricy.  That  the  people  should  be  disgusted 
and  indignant  at  the  passage  of  such  Acts  by  Congress  is  but 
natural,  and  it  is  a  healthful  sign  that  it  is  so ;  but  are  not  those 
who  are  loudest  and  fiercest  in  denouncing  all  who  voted  for  the 
back  pay  and  increased  salary  bill,  and  President  Grant  who 
signed  it,  quite  indifferent  to  the  moral  obliquity  of  their  own 
leader  and  champion,  who  worked  for  and  approved  a  bill  giving  to 
himself  both  back  pay  and  increased  salary  ?  Did  he  not  violate 
the  Constitution  he  had  sworn  to  support  by  signing  a  bill  that  he 
knew  contained  an  unconstitutional  proviso  which  increased  his 
own  salary,  and  then  drawing  the  money  with  eager  haste  ? 

During  the  last  political  canvass,  who  so  loud  as  our  doughty  Gov- 
ernor in  denouncing  President  Grant  for  signing  a  bill  that  increased 
his  own  pay  for  his  incoming  term.  Who,  too,  was  so  bitter  in  his  ob- 
jurgations of  those  Congressmen  that  voted  themselves  back  pay  for 


—  31  — 

the  past,  and  increased  pay  for  the  future  ?  But,  alas  !  the  contortions 
his  body,  as  he  gesticulated  his  indignation,  rattled  the  money  in 
his  own  pocket  that  had  been  obtained  by  a  salary  grab  and  a 
back-pay  steal.  Had  we  a  Nast  among  us  to  illustrate  the  beau- 
tiful consistency  of  our  Governor,  he  should  represent  him  with  his 
mouth  open,  rolling  forth  indignant  scorn  of  the  thieves  arid  grabbers 
who  had  soiled  their  fingers  with  back  pay  and  Credit  Mobilier 
•Stock;  his  right  hand  raised  and  outstretched  to  give  emphasis  to 
his  words,  while  his  left  was  slyly  stuffing  in  his  pocket  the  bill  he 
had  just  signed,  giving  himself  an  additional  thousand  dolla  -s  a  year. 

But  though  our  Governor  abused  his  trust,  and  disgraced  the 
State  by  his  action  in  the  California  increased  salary  grab  and 
back  pay  steal,  we,  the  citizens  of  California,  have  one  consolation. 
He  did  not  sell  himself  so  cheaply  as  did  Schuyler  Colfax.  The 
late  Vice-President  received  only  $1,200  from  that  fund,  which  was 
distributed  where  it  would  do  the  most  good  ;  but  do  you  think 
our  Governor,  the  head  of  the  purity  and  reform  party  in  Cali- 
fornia, would  sell  himself  so  cheap  as  that  ?  No.  I  scorn  the 
insinuation,  and,  as  a  citizen  of  California,  jealous  of  her  good 
name,  I  repudiate  the  idea  that  her  Governor  would  try  to  rob  the 
State,  unconstitutionally,  for  the  paltry  sum  of  $1,200.  That  he 
has  done  it  for  $4,000  is  now  known  to  all,  and  when  we  compare 
the  political  morality  of  the  East  with  that  of  California,  we  may 
take  comfort,  to  ourselves  from  the  fact  that  our  leading  men  hold 
themselves  at  a  higher  price  for  cash  than  do  those  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  that  as  4,000  is  to  1,200,  so  is  California 
virtue  to  that  of  Indiana.  The  price  of  our  statesmen  at  Sacra- 
mento is  more  .than  three  times  as  high  as  it  is  at  Washington. 
Let  us,  then,  hear  no  more  about  corruption  in  California  politics 
among  the  purity  and  reform  leaders. 

Now  I  do  not  claim  to  be  so  much  better  than  other  people  that 
I  feel  it  my  especial  duty  to  expose  their  faults  and  shortcomings, 
and  it  is  not  from  any  pleasure  I  take  in  commenting  on  the  errors 
of  a  man  holding  high  position,  that  I  make  this  allusion  to  Gover- 
nor Booth.  As  Governor,  or  prospective  Senator,  the  individual 
Newton  Booth  concerns  me  very  little.  But  the.  callous,  stupid 
indifference  of  the  people  to  everything  like  common  honesty  in 
their  public  servants,  does  concern  me  and  concerns  everybody. 
The  shameless  effrontery  of  people  who  vaunt  their  own  virtue  be- 
cause they  denounce  the  faults  and  corruption  of  their  political  op- 
ponents, while  they  rally  around  a  man  who  is  guilty  in  the  con- 
crete of  all  they  denounce  in  the  abstract,  evinces  a  state  of  moral 
obtuseness  and  profligacy  of  a  most  dangerous  and  threatening 
character. 

During  the  late  political  canvass  in  this  State,  the  people  did 


not  seem  to  know  or  care  whether  or  no  their  candidates  had  or 
affected  to  have  common  honesty.  The  two  men  in  whose  interest 
it  seemed  to  be  mainly  conducted  did  not  even  affect  enough  hon- 
esty to  hold  them  to  their  pledges.  No  matters  of  practical  states- 
manship were  discussed,  no  question  of  higher  law  or  natural  right ; 
no  measures  of  specific  relief  from  the  tyrannizing  power  of  monop- 
olies, but  only  appeals  to  secure  the  election  of  this  man  or  that 
man  to  the  United  States  Senate.  And  yet,  though  the  friends  of 
one  of  them,  who  were  working  night  and  day  to  compass  his  elec- 
tion by  representing  that  he  was  not  a  candidate  and  not  in  the 
canvass,  not  even  in  California,  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  attempted 
fraud,  as  people  seemed  to  think  that  if  he  could  win  by  the  trick 
it  would  be  proper  and  legitimate,  and  they  would  console  them- 
selves with  the  miserable  saying  that  all  is  fair  in  politics. 

The  other  man  for  whom  that  campaign  was  carried  on,  also  was 
not  a  candidate.  It  was  not  that  his  friends  had  said  he  was  not, 
and  that  he  was  trying  to  take  advantage  of  their  denial.  But  he 
had  explicitly  and  publicly  said,  when  running  for  the  governorship, 
that  under  no  circumstances  would  he,  if  elected,  be  a  candidate 
for  another  position  during  his  official  term.  Indeed,  he  could  not 
honestly  and  decently  accept  an  election  to  the  Senate,  for  he 
would  be  under  contract  with  the  people  to  serve  through  his  term. 
It  would  be  dishonest  for  him  to  accept,  even  if  elected — rdishonest 
was  the  word  he  used,  and  should  we  not  take  the  word  of  a  Gov- 
ernor that  he  would  riot  do  an  act  that  he  himself  had  stigmatized 
as  dishonest  ? 

Now  the  temptation  to  accept  the  office  of  U.  S.  Senator  is  very 
gre^t,  especially  to  a  man  who  has  resorted  to  dark-  and  dishonest 
ways  to  obtain  his  election.  Hence,  after  the  shameful  duplicity 
exhibited  by  both  Gorham  and  Booth  when  canvassing  before  the 
people,  and  the  liberality  of  Casserly  when  negotiating  for  the  seat 
he  now  holds,  I  do  not  look  for  such  Spartan  virtue  in  any  one  of 
them  as  that  he  should  decline  it  if  offered  to  him.  If  people  will 
vote  for  men  who  can  be  candidates  only  at  the  sacrifice  of  honor 
and  truth,  the  inference  is,  that  they  prefer  men  who  are  destitute 
of  those  qualities — men  who  will  break  their  pledges  without  scru- 
ple, and  who,  if.  censured  for  their  violation,  can  turn  to  their  con- 
stituents with  the  sneering  reply  that  they  were  elected  as  pledge- 
breakers,  as  the  representatives  of  untruth,  the  scoffers  at  honesty, 
the  despisers  of  virtue  and  fidelity. 

But  the  fact  that  now  and  then  a  dishonest  or  unworthy  man  at- 
tains high  position,  is  of  little  importance  if  the  moral  atmosphere  is 
kept  pure,  and  a  high  standard  of  integrity  is  maintained  by  the 
masses  of  the  people.  So  long  as  the  moral  sense  of  the  commu- 
nity is  kept  elevated  and  pure,  no  one  individual  can  work  serious 


—  33  — 


harm  or  danger.  But  when  people  grow  indifferent  whether  or  no 
their  public  servants  have  even  common  honesty,  so  that  they  rep- 
resent some  party  interest  or  private  scheme,  then  indeed  are  we 
drifting  on  the  rocks  of  destruction.  Then  must  the  old  ship  Ke- 
public  ere  lo^ig  founder,  from  inherent  rottenness.  The  degene- 
racy which  begets  indifference  to  official  morality,  is  the  sign  of  na- 
tional decay  ;  of  a  death  that  has  no  resurrection. 


